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Made only one change

The USDA only made one change in the 2011-12 corn use projections; the export projection was raised 50 million bushels. The reason for the projected increase in U.S. 2011-12 corn exports was the fact that the projected Argentina corn crop was lowered by 120 million bushels due to dry weather.

Given the 48 million bushels production increase and the 50 million bushel projected export increase, projected ending stocks remained basically the same and the stocks-to-use ratio remained a very tight 6.7 percent.

A couple of notes about the world coarse grain situation; world 2011-12 coarse grain production is projected to be a record despite the reduction in the Argentina crops.

However, projected world corn ending stocks remain at very tight levels. World wheat stocks are at more than adequate levels, so wheat is basically being priced as a feed grain. This also may limit/slow upside corn price moves.

So what do I do with my remaining 2011 corn and expected 2012 corn considering all the price risk?

I would argue you go at this in several ways. From your financial balance sheet and projected cash flow statements, determine how much risk you can/are willing to take.

Second, determine the downside price risk. To do this check out the probability price forecasts on my webpage, https://www.msu.edu/~hilker/. As you can see, there is also considerable upside price potential, so you have tradeoffs. From this information consider making both some upside and downside price targets.

But also consider setting the targets in the context of the market, where there is often likely upside and downside resistance areas.

For example, with March corn futures, without some major negative fundamental news, see above, it can happen, there will likely be a good deal of resistance for the market to go below its previous low, in the $5.80 range, but if it does, not much resistance for a while below that.

And on the upside, the resistance is in the $6.60 range.

So do you need/want some protection if the market breaks below $5.80? Should you consider pricing some corn, especially if you have a lot left, if March futures move back close to $6.60?